The dream that quickly became a nightmare for the player billed as Manchester United’s “street footballer” is finally over now that Bebé has moved to Benfica on a free transfer.

As with Ralph Milne, Sir Alex Ferguson will probably not wish to recall the moment he agreed to sign Tiago Manuel Dias Correia. In that decision Ferguson acquired a rival to Milne, in the player given his nickname by his brother, as the Scot’s poorest ever acquisition.

At least Ferguson had seen Milne, whom he took to Old Trafford in 1988 from Bristol City, in action many times.

Bebé was bought for £7.4m from Vitória de Guimarães on 17 August 2010, with Ferguson admitting: “I didn’t see any videos of him. It’s the first time. Normally, as in the case of Javier Hernández and Chris Smalling, I saw plenty of video footage of them.

“You’ve got to trust your staff at times and our scout in Portugal was adamant we must do something quickly.” Other clubs were interested. “And that’s where you have to make quick decisions in life and I’m not too bad about that,” Ferguson added. “I also spoke to Carlos Queiroz [his former assistant at United and then Portugal coach] about him.

“Sometimes you have to go on an instinct, you look at material. You look at their age and whether they’re bringing pace, balance, desire to play and things like that.”

This was a footballer who had turned 20 the previous month and signed with Vitória only a few weeks before, after a single season in the Portuguese third division for Estrela da Amadora where he scored four times in 26 appearances.

Bebé’s own analysis of his abilities had been: “I’m fast, I kick well and I score a lot of goals.”

Sadly for him, Ferguson and fans only the pace part was true of a United career in which he was never given a run of games to prove himself, with Ferguson quickly deciding he had dropped a major clanger.

In that first season Bebé would make all of his seven appearances for the club – registering twice – with his final match coming in United’s 1-0 win over Crawley Town in an FA Cup tie on 19 February 2011.

The three years that have passed since are a tale of missed opportunity, ill fortune, an investigation into his transfer and, ultimately, a footballer out of his depth, as he was loaned first to Turkey’s Besiktas, then to Rio Ave and finally to Paços de Ferreira in Portugal.

At Besiktas he suffered a cruciate knee injury in August 2011. On returning after missing a large chunk of the campaign he was caught out late in a nightclub and told to train with the reserves. He totalled four appearances for Besiktas.

Around the same time came the Portuguese police investigation into the deal and the agents involved, though this never amounted to anything material.

The spells at Rio (January to May 2013) and Paços (September 2013 to May 2014) were more successful, with his 11 goals for the latter club making him last season’s top Portuguese finisher and came close to gaining him selection for the national team squad at Brazil 2014.

The improvement illustrates a growing maturity and Bebé admitted last year the move to United came too soon. “I thought: ‘I’m here, I’m doing well and I don’t have to try hard every day.’ It was my fault. I was messing around too much,” he said.

Another clue as to why he failed at United can be found in a difficult upbringing that might not have armed him with the skill-set to adapt to life in a foreign country at the world’s biggest club.

Bebé’s formative years featured time living rough before being taken to Casa do Gaiato, a refuge for orphans and underprivileged children in Loures near Lisbon, where he played football on the street or a concrete tennis court.

Bebé had grown up in the Sintra municipality yet, despite it being a tourist attraction, his impoverished family lived in down-at-heel Cacem.

Football proved the classic escape. An almost quasi-Hollywood story featured the big break coming while living in Casa do Gaiato when he was selected to play at the Homeless World Cup.

From there he was signed by Estrela and the rest is history or at least an odd footnote in the annals of United and Ferguson’s time as a manager.

For Bebé his career could still thrive. Ferguson – or the scout he fingered for advising him to take him – may yet prove not too far wrong.

Benfica, the club of Eusébio, two European Cups and a record 33 championships, are Portugal’s biggest club. To secure a four-year contract there suggests Bebé is not finished. In fact he may just be starting. Either way it should be intriguing to watch.